Translating Tech to CEOs

An interesting challenge I’ve been dealing with lately has been translating techie products to senior management and company leaders in feature magazine articles.

The reason why this is a challenge:

The magazine also reaches tech staff, so we don’t the article to be over-simplified.

It’s hard to differentiate the product without covering some of the inner-workings of the technology.

CEOs want to get to the bottom line, as quickly as possible, without having to read an entire article.

By featuring real people’s experiences with the technology, we can let them share in their own words the big picture benefits and advantages to a tech product. We also often gather the feedback of senior leaders about industry or company issues or pain points that the product addresses or solves.

To me, the key is to tell a story… show the problem, discuss the journey the company went on to solve it, and share honestly any areas that still under progress or need improvement. If a technical point or process needs to be outlined, it is best to pull that information into a sidebar or pull-out box so it doesn’t bog the article.

I am also looking forward to the day when it is easy to pair audio or video with a magazine article so that another dimension can be added for maximum impact.